5 Ways to Avoid Diet Culture in the New Year (and always)

The new year can be rife with diet culture- advice on how to lose weight, or stick to your weight loss or fitness resolutions. So many of these goals at the beginning of the new year are rigid, overwhelming, and frankly, disordered. But we see them all over social media, the internet, and magazines, and they can start to seem normal. If you are looking for a way to reflect on the past year and set some goals for the new one, without falling into the trap of changing your body, check out our tips for avoiding diet culture in the new year. 

Don’t set health focused resolutions
Setting a health focused new years resolution is almost guaranteed to fail- diets do not work, and restricting yourself is almost a sure fire way to end up binging. Just think of the cliche of everyone going to the gym in January, but then falling off in February. Instead of making a resolution to change your behaviors, try reflecting on what you loved about the last year, and how you can add more of that feeling into your new year. How can you continue to support yourself this year? 

Assess and unfollow people on social media
Social media can be the most constant reminder of our inadequacies or the difference in our bodies- and it is addicting! So if you are going to be on social media, make sure that it is a place that you like and that feels good to your mental health! Do you ever find yourself thinking that someone’s stories or posts make you question what you are doing with your life, or make you feel bad about yourself? Take a moment to unfollow- or mute if that feels better- any of those accounts that make you feel bad or don’t align with your values. 

Block diet ads on social media
Instagram recently made it possible to customize the ads that you are shown. How to do it: 

1. 1. 1. Click the ‘settings’ tab on your Instagram profile page
      2. Scroll down to the feature labeled ‘ads’
      3. Click on ‘ad topics’
      4. Type ‘weight loss’ or ‘body weight control’ into the search bar
      5. Click ‘see list’
      6. Toggle the option to ‘show less ads about this topic’

Take a break from social media
If you’ve done all the above social media cleaning, try taking a break from the apps altogether. Whether it is a day, a weekend, or a week, spending time away from the apps will help you to notice if or how you are using them to cope, give yourself time to focus on other things in your life, and sit with the emotions you might have been avoiding by scrolling.

Take up a new hobby that is not health focused
If you want to focus on expanding your life in the new year, try starting a new hobby that doesn’t have anything to do with your health or body. Learn a new skill or set a goal just for fun, like painting, surfing, meditation, reading, baking bread, or knitting. Taking some time to focus on something that isn’t about your body will help you to remember what it feels like to focus on other aspects of your life, and can help you find things that make you feel happy and fulfilled in a way that changing your body will never bring.

It is important to remember that we do not need to set new year’s resolutions, and we don’t need to change our lives (or our bodies) just because of a day on a calendar. And, if you want it to be, the new year can be a time to reevaluate what is working or not working in your life, and creatively find a way to continue to support yourself or try something new. 

What are your favorite ways to support yourself and avoid diet culture?